


Eight of Wands

by R0seColoredGlasses



Series: Ace of Swords [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Divination, Magically Powerful Harry Potter, Prophecy, Tarot, brief mentions of voldemort, professor trelawney deserves better, we stan a hippie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-17 01:33:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28840953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/R0seColoredGlasses/pseuds/R0seColoredGlasses
Summary: At the end of the third year, Professor Trelawney takes Harry aside and reads his tarot cards. What she predicts might just change his life and destiny.
Series: Ace of Swords [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2114775
Comments: 3
Kudos: 34





	Eight of Wands

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don’t own harry potter nor any of Rowling’s characters, hold no stock at any publishing company or warner bros and I’m not making any money off of this.

It was the final day of classes and everyone was itching to leave… everyone except Harry Potter. The boy sat in the corner of the divination classroom beside Ron as he stared out the large arched windows behind Professor Trelawney, who was addressing the class about something he couldn’t bring himself to listen to. In his hands sat the dregs of the tea from the beginning of class: the final tea leaf reading of the year. For once, Professor Trelawney had not reacted at all upon seeing Harry’s tea leaves, but had been rather quiet, simply moving on to inspect the next cup. Despite the warm haze in the June air and the humidity in the stuffy tower, the rim of the porcelain teacup had gone cold. Harry ran his thumb over it absentmindedly.

The sudden shuffling of students collecting their bags for the last class of the year alerted Harry that it was time to leave. That class was over and he would soon be on the train back to his aunt and uncle in less than a week. He simply couldn’t wait for Hurricane Petunia. But as he stood and shouldered his messenger bag, he felt the eyes of Professor Trelawney fix on him firmly. 

Harry was the last one in line waiting for a chance to descend from the tower, but just as Ron slipped down onto the ladder through the large trapdoor, Trelawney called out to him.

“Harry, dear, please stay behind a moment,” she said in her usual lofty tone.

“You coming, mate?” Ron called from the bottom of the ladder as Harry lingered over the trapdoor. 

“Yeah, just a minute!” 

Harry groaned inwardly but turned around and headed towards the Professor’s desk. She motioned for him to sit upon the large pouf nearest to the desk and as he did so, she sat across from him with her hands folded in a pensive and rather uncharacteristic manner. 

“Dear, what did you think of your tea leaves today?” The oversized dragonfly of a woman asked. For such a silly question, she sure sounded serious.

“Erm… I didn’t think much of them at all,” Harry answered honestly, feeling he sounded a bit foolish. “They looked like a giant ‘X’.”

“Yes, I thought so too… the ‘X’ represents a crossroads: a choice of great importance to one’s destiny. I thought we might find out today what that crossroads could be.”

With this, Trelawney reached down below her desk and pulled out a small, polished wooden box, which she placed between Harry and herself on the desk. Within the box, it soon became clear, was a deck of cards.

“These are tarot cards. Now, I’m not under the illusion that you enjoy my class, but if you were to continue then you would learn all about how to use them next year.” She explained as she gently shuffled the worn old cards in her long, knobbly hands. Harry was quite taken aback: she hadn’t seemed at all aware of her student’s attitudes towards her class (at least not since Hermione had left in a fuss after insisting that divination was all fluff).

“Today when I read your cards, we will only do three. They represent your past, present and future, though it is more often than not unclear which aspects are represented.” She laid three cards out in a line facedown in front of Harry before placing the remainder of the deck back into its wooden box.

Harry couldn’t help but feel oddly fascinated, which was as unusual as the steadiness of Professor Trelawney’s voice. She turned the first card and there in front of him sat a grave image of a man hung by his ankles from a rope.

“Your past, dear, is the Hanged Man in reversed position. I’m not at all surprised.”

“Why?” Harry asked suddenly, looking up at her from the card. Maybe it was all the stifling incense muddling his mind, but he couldn’t find it in him to be as skeptical as usual… not when Trelawney was acting so different from her usual vague, airy nature.

“The Hanged Man reversed means that your past was full of pain and strife, perhaps even injury or physical illness. Despite what happened to Lily and James that night, a card like this would not reflect but a single event. I daren’t ask about it, though.” There was compassion and a ring of truth to her words, as Harry recalled his childhood: heavy with emotional manipulation and even occasionally physical abuse. As a child he had made himself sick from stress and whenever Dudley had come home sick, Harry had always been quick to follow in illness. 

“Erm… How about the next card?” He said uncomfortably.

The card in the “present” position depicted eight wooden rods falling at a diagonal like shooting stars. 

“Your present is in the eight of wands… this is where your crossroads lies. It can either represent stagnation and trial or sudden change and great hope, but this, dear, is up to you.” 

“But what does that mean? What kind of change?” Harry asked.

“Well, the present is the bridge between past and future. Your choice lies in whether or not you make the change for yourself: if you wish to stagnate and stay in the same state as you have always been: strife and pain, then you may choose to. However, if you wish to transform and move forward into a better life then you must rid yourself of whatever is causing this pain— abandon your ‘Hanged Man’, so to speak,” Professor Trelawney explained patiently, “Though this, of course, is a mere speculation.” 

Harry sat stunned. The way Trelawney had explained it, it was so simple: he could leave behind the cause of the pain he felt or he could wallow. He could make change or shun it. It seemed an easy choice… if only he knew what the cause was! Years of abuse, poor adjustment to the world around him, unfortunate circumstances and deadly enemies were all unique pains for Harry Potter, but perhaps there was hope…

“Are you ready for the final card?” Professor Trelawney asked, studying his face with her creepy, overly large eyes. Harry simply nodded. 

The final card depicted a hand firmly brandishing a sword, around the tip of which hovered a golden crown and laurel leaves. 

“This is the ace of swords. It represents a challenge to literally ‘take up the sword’, to undergo a trial. It is also a warning: only the strong survive. This is the law of nature and this card is one that demands a challenge to be faced. The strongest becomes the champion. This card is one that appears in the futures of those with incredible destinies, those who are meant to do great things.” Professor Trelawney was no longer patient or steady, but stone faced as she looked at Harry over the top of her enormous spectacles, which were slipping down her nose.

“What… what is that supposed to mean?” Harry said as he shook himself out of his daze. What was he thinking? This whole thing was ridiculous… Why was he even still here?

“Are you not at odds with an immensely powerful and dangerous force?” Trelawney immediately had his attention once more. “Does your life not hang in the balance of a deadly and unstable fate? Is the world around you not in desperate need of reform?”

“Reform?” 

“Our world will turn on a dime to shun a hero it once hailed, many magical beings suffer at the hands of those who do not care to understand… you may not remember the days of wild magic and the raw forces that used to guide mankind, but my seer ancestors certainly do, dear. Your destiny does not stop at the defeat of the Dark Lord.” With this, Professor Trelawney stood and moved, for the first time that year, to open one of the tower’s windows. She pulled back the curtains and bright light was shed suddenly upon Harry’s face, practically blinding as it shone in his hair and glinted off the bent wire frames of his glasses.

“Dear, the wild magic is bleeding away from our world as witches and wizards begin to neglect it, but I sense that magic in you. This world needs that magic once more.” 

Harry sat silently at Trelawney’s desk, staring down at the three cards before him while his Professor stood at the window. It was a lot to take in right after midday, when the lush grounds bloomed and the June air called to him to forget it all and go flying on his broomstick. Despite this, it all somehow made sense.

“You had best go visit your defense professor,” Professor Trelawney said after a few minutes. 

“Uhh… right,” Harry said dumbly. “Thanks, Professor. For everything. I’ll see you next year, those cards seem interesting.” He headed quickly for the doorway after once again shouldering his bag. He was feeling quite overwhelmed and had a feeling he’d be spending a lot of time brooding over this. 

“By the way,” Professor Trelawney said as he had once again, almost reached the trapdoor, “Do be careful this summer.”

“Err… you too,” He said as he quickly dropped down onto the ladder and out of the classroom for the last time that year. 

He was surprised to find that Ron was still waiting for him at the bottom of the tower. The redhead stood looking extremely bored until he noticed Harry. 

“So, what did Professor Nutter want to talk about?” He probed curiously as the two boys made their way towards the grounds.

“Nothing, she just wanted to talk about my tea leaves,” Harry said. He didn’t know yet if this was something he wanted to tell Ron. Perhaps it gave away Harry’s opinion of Ron’s continued skepticism and irreverence, or maybe it showed that Harry was starting to really believe Trelawney… But Harry knew that anything Ron had to say about it would just confuse and overwhelm him more. 

“So did she predict your death again then?”

“Not quite… do you want to go for a fly?” He tried to change the subject to something that didn’t require talking. 

“Alright mate… I’m sure Fred or George won’t mind if I borrow one of their brooms…”

Harry couldn’t help but wonder about Trelawney’s theory… about him having “wild magic” and bringing it back to the world. The world seemed plenty wild to him… It certainly seemed like the wind that blew past them and the owls that lived with them and the very grounds that Hogwarts sat upon all had their own magic. Harry thought of the centaurs, the proud and noble people of the forest and their magic, and he then remembered something the centaur Frienze had told him a long time ago…

Could he really bring the change that everyone seemed to expect of him?

**Author's Note:**

> I hope this was okay... I just wanted to write a brief introduction to my Ace of Swords series, which will likely take a tremendous amount of time to write. It begins with Harry’s decision (after this reading) to run away from the Dursleys.


End file.
